Courtesy Virginia San Fratello
The Hydro Wall
A look at the design that won this year’s Next Generation ideas competition
Architect Virginia San Fratello won this year's Next Generation ideas competition, sponsored by Metropolis magazine, with her proposed Hydro Wall. Her challenge now will be getting the digital image, rendered in the 3-D modeling program Form•Z, "out of the computer," as she says, referring to the process of building a prototype.
The Hydro Wall is an ingeniously conceived building component that collects rainwater from the roof and stores it in a rubber "bladder" inside the wall to serve as a thermal mass. Intended for hot climates with sharp daily swings in temperature, the wall would reduce air-conditioning costs and energy consumption by preventing the sun's heat from radiating through exterior walls during the day. The water -- one of nature's best thermo conductors -- would store the excess heat inside the wall, and a heat-transfer system could be installed to blow the warm air into the interior at night when temperatures drop. The water could also be used to irrigate plants growing from pockets embedded in the wall's surface.
